I’m going to be a pre-comm major at UCSB this fall, and I’m kind of confused on how I build my schedule. How do I pick GE’s while also picking classes that are on track for my major? Apparently I’m supposed to know what I want to take by my orientation date, and that’s coming up so I’m a little worried.
Relax 
it really doesn’t matter what you take 1st quarter, you have 4 years ahead of you, so even if you took completely inappropriate classes (calculus, computer programming, maybe an engineering elective) you’d still be fine and have plenty of time to take the classes you need to enter your major.
You don’t need to know what you want to take before you show up, I’m not sure where you got that idea. That’s the point of orientation, to help you pick classes both for your 1st quarter and understand how to pick them for your remaining time.
As far as “on track for your major”, again, no worries. According to the page at http://www.comm.ucsb.edu/undergrad/majors you need to take exactly 4 classes as a pre-Comm major which people commonly do during their 1st 100 units (eg. 2+ years at 45 units a year). In fact its safe to say that most of the people you’ll end up graduating with in Comm Studies are showing up this summer intending to major in something completely different and won’t take their 1st Comm class for several quarters. At orientation they’ll probably suggest taking one of those pre-major classes, but most of what you’re going to be doing your frosh/soph year is satisfying the College distribution requirements. They will fully cover this at orientation.
My s just got back and a ton of time was spent preparing you for registration on the second day. Also he is a comm major. They really really don’t want you taking a pre-comm class first quarter. He was told prior and asked again. I’m not even sure they allow it. FYI.